Friday, 17 June 2016

In recent months, the National Enquirer has broken several UK injunctions: PJS, NEJ, and RA. Now, it has broken four more, by naming three football players and a manager who were granted injunctions to prevent details of extra-marital affairs being published.

The four men were named on the Enquirer's website on 1st June, though the site is geo-blocked outside the United States. One of the footballers was named in the magazine's issue dated 13th June: "The ENQUIRER this week names more celebs and sports stars who've desperately tried to hide their sordid secrets using the British courts! One of America's top soccer players, Robbie Keane, is among them!"

All four are named in the issue dated 20th June: "Three players - Robbie Keane, star of the LA Galaxy, Gareth Barry and English goalkeeper Joe Hart - were named by The ENQUIRER. Married English soccer boss Alan Pardew got a court to hide his sleaze".

Some of these injunctions are almost a decade old, and UK football is not a particularly popular sport in America. It seems either that the Enquirer is scraping the bottom of the barrel in its search for exclusives, or that it is breaking the injunctions so that UK tabloids (especially The Sun) can use the American media coverage to justify lifting the reporting restrictions in the UK.